Web splicing apparatus

ABSTRACT

The invention is a simple and inexpensive means for splicing together webs of paper, particularly for a newspaper printing press where it is desirable to be able to change reels of paper without stopping the press. The splicing means comprises a pair of rollers mounted on a common carrier which is trunnion mounted for rotation about an axis disposed between the rollers. The splicing means can be moved from a position where two webs to be joined pass between rollers without contacting one another, to a transposed position in which the webs are brought together and the resultant combined web is constrained to follow a sinuous path about the rollers. The end of the new web is pasted in any convenient manner. The mechanism for rotating the carrier may be a rack and pinion device actuated by a double-acting pneumatic ram.

United States Patent Hurst May 27, 1975 WEB SPLICING APPARATUS [76]inventor: Peter Hurst, 6l9 A, Ashingdon Rd., :fgffigf; te i tl'tlRochford Essex England Attorney, Agent, or FirmBrady, OBoyle 8L Gates[22] Filed: Dec. 4, 1972 [30] Foreign Application Priority Data Dec. 6,1971 United Kingdom 56634/71 [52] US. Cl. 156/504; 156/157; 242/583;242/584 [51] Int. Cl B65h 19/18 [58] Field of Search 156/157, 159, 502,504, 156/505, 544, 545; 242/154, 58.1, 58.3, 58.4, 58.5

{56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,685,417 8/1954 Bartelson242/75 3,176,927 4/1965 lrazoqui 242/55.12

3,201,865 8/1965 Jones r 29/493 3,565,711 2/1971 Block et a1 156/73FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 222,672 1/1958 Australia 156/502 {57]ABSTRACT The invention is a simple and inexpensive means for splicingtogether webs of paper, particularly for a newspaper printing presswhere it is desirable to be able to change reels of paper withoutstopping the press. The splicing means comprises a pair of rollersmounted on a common carrier which is trunnion mounted for rotation aboutan axis disposed between the rollers. The splicing means can be movedfrom a position where two webs to be joined pass between rollers withoutcontacting one another, to a transposed position in which the webs arebrought together and the resultant combined web is constrained to followa sinuous path about the rollers. The end of the new web is pasted inany convenient manner. The mechanism for rotating the carrier may be arack and pinion device actuated by a double-acting pneumatic ram.

3 Claims, 22 Drawing Figures PATENTEU MAY 27 ms SHEET PATENTEUMY'Z? 1915313851030 SHEET 3 PATENTED MAY 27 ms SHEET PAIENTEU MAY 27 ms SHEETSHEET IATENTEDHAY 27 ms MTENYEB 2 7 975 SHEET FIG. 77.

WEB SPLICING APPARATUS The invention relates to printing machinery andmore particularly to automatic reel changing apparatus for high speedprinting presses and to reel stands incorporating such automatic reelchanging apparatus.

It is a disadvantage of many known reel stands that in order to replacean expired reel by a fresh reel of paper during a printing run it isnecessary to stop the printing press, thus effectively reducing theoutput of the press, perhaps by as much as forty per-cent. Such areduction can only be avoided at present either by using a printingpress of higher output or by using an automatic reel changing devicewhich is complicated and thus costly.

It is an object of the invention to provide a simple and thusinexpensive device whereby reels may be changed without the necessity ofstopping the printing press, and it will be appreciated that theinvention finds particular application in situations where a highprinting speed is essential, e.g. in the printing of newspapers.

From one aspect the present invention provides web splicing apparatuscomprising means for bringing an adhesive coated portion of a first weband a second web into surface-to-surface contact and for constrainingthe newly joined webs to follow a sinuous path to ensure intimatecontact between the two webs. The apparatus may comprise a parallel pairof web guides, e.g. rollers, on a common carrier which is adapted fororbital movement about an axis disposed between the rollers and parallelwith the axes thereof, the two webs being passed between the rollers,and means for rotating the carrier. In operation the arrangement is suchthat the rollers can be moved from a position in which the webs passtherebetween without contacting one another to a position in which thewebs are brought together and the resultant combined web is constrainedto follow a sinuous path about the rollers, which ensures that the websare firmly secured together.

Any suitable means may be provided for rotating the carrier, eg a rackand pinion device actuated by a double-acting pneumatic ram. It has beenfound desirable when joining the webs to move the rollers from theirnon-operative to their operative position as quickly as possible.

The apparatus preferably comprises means for holding the end of the newweb under tension and against one of the pair of rollers prior to andduring the joining. The means may comprise one or more and preferablytwo spring biased tapes releasably secured to the web (.e.g. by anadhesive) to permit the tapes to become detached from the websimmediately after the webs have been joined. The apparatus may alsocomprise means for pasting the end of the new web and/or means forsevering the expired web.

From another aspect the invention comprises a reel stand comprising websplicing apparatus as defined above, the reel stand having for each weba loading and a running position whereby a fresh reel can be loadedwhile the other web is being consumed.

From yet another aspect the invention comprises printing machineryhaving web splicing apparatus as defined above or having a reel stand asdefined above.

One embodiment of the invention will now be described with reference tothe accompanying diagram matic drawings, in which:

FIGS. I and IA are respectively a perspective view and a side view ofautomatic web splicing apparatus in a first position of operation;

FIGS. 2 and 2A to FIGS. 10 and 10A are respectively perspective viewsand side views of the apparatus of FIGS. 1 and 1A in further positions;

FIG. 11 is a perspective view of the web splicing mechanism;

FIG. 12 is a side elevation of a reel stand incorporating web splicingapparatus as shown in FIGS. 1 to 4, and which permits reels to bechanged.

Referring first to FIGS. 1 and IA to FIGS. 10 and 10A of the drawingsthere is shown automatic web splicing apparatus 10 for use inassociation with a reel stand for a printing press and by means of whichan expired reel can be changed for a new reel without the necessity ofstopping the press. With a high speed printing press producing newsprintit will normally be necessary to slow the press to crawl speed duringreel changing, but this, of course, will depend on the tensile strengthof the web, the normal speed of operation of the press, and the inertiaof the new reel. The drawings show a pair of reels 1 and 2 associatedwith each press, only one of the reels being used at one time.Preferably the configuration of the reel stand is also such that expiredreels can be replaced with fresh reels without impeding the drawing ofweb from the other reel.

The reel changing apparatus comprises a pair of web guides in the formof rollers 3 and 4 mounted on a carrier 5 for orbital movement about anaxis 6 equispaced between the axes of the rollers 3 and 4 and parallelthereto. A web 12 being fed to the press from the reel 2 passes betweenthe rollers 3 and 4. The end of the new web 8 to be joined to the end ofthe expiring web also passes between the rollers 3 and 4, and is held inthis position by tensioning means 7, e.g. a pair of spring urgedflexible tapes whose ends are temporarily stuck to the web by means ofan adhesive. At this stage the disposition of the carrier 5 is such thatthe webs l2 and 8 are disposed remotely from one another as is shown inFIG. 1.

As shown in FIG. 2, the reel 2 has been consumed so that it is necessaryto change-over to the new reel 1.

Before the leading end of the new web 8 is joined to the expiring end ofthe old web, the end of the new web is coated with an adhesive inconventional manner, for example, using a strip of double-sided adhesivetape.

When the two webs are to be united, the carrier 5 is rotated through inthe direction shown in arrow X, see FIGS. 3 and 3A, so that theadhesivecoated surface of the new web contacts the surface of the web12. At the same time the transposition of the rollers 3 and 4 causes thejoined web to follow a sinuous path which ensures intimate contactbetween the two webs to be joined. During rotation of the carrier, whichis done as quickly as possible by means of a rack and pinion deviceactuated by a double acting pneumatic ram which is more fully describedbelow, the tensioning tapes of means 7 become detached from the end ofthe web 8. After the joining has been completed the carrier 5 is rotatedin the opposite direction through 180 (arrow Y) into the position shownin FIG. 4. Also the end of the expiring web 12 is severed as indicatedat 16 in any suitable manner e.g. manually or automatically, either inthe FIG. 3 or in the FIG. 4 position as desired. Web is now fed to thepress from the reel 1. As shown in 3 FIG. 5 the expired reel 2 is thendisplaced by a fresh reel 14.

When the reel 1 expires it can be replaced by the newly loaded reel inthe manner described above. This sequence is shown in FIGS. 6 and 6A toand 10A. In this case however joining is effected by rotating thecarrier 5 in the opposite direction to that effected when joining theweb 8. This is shown by the arrow Z of FIG. 8A.

The web splicing mechanism 10 shown in FIG. ll of the drawings comprisesa pair of web guide rollers 3 and 4 which are mounted on a carrier 5which is supported by trunnions 17 whereby the rollers can be rotatedabout the trunnion axis. One trunnion shaft 17 has a pinion 18 securedthereto, the pinion meshing with a toothed rack 19. The rack isconnected to a double-acting pneumatic ram 21 by means of a piston rod20, and the ram 21 is fixed to the machine frame by a bracket 22. Inthis manner the rollers can at will be rotated in either direction.

Referring to FIG. 12 of the drawings there is shown a reel standstructure 13 which simultaneously serves four printing units. Thestructure holds eight reels 1, 2 arranged in four groups of two so thattwo reels are associated with each printing unit, one being used whilethe other is being loaded. An automatic web splicing apparatus 10 asdescribed above is associated with each pair of reels. The configurationof the stand is such that expired reels can be replaced without stoppingthe press, the new reels being inserted between the reels mounted in thestand, as indicated at 14.

I claim:

1. Apparatus for splicing a moving web comprising, a pair of parallelweb guides which are spaced apart to define between them a single paththrough which the moving web can pass, a common carrier on which saidpair of web guides are mounted, said carrier having a pivot axis spacedlaterally between and parallel with said pair of web guides, saidcarrier being pivotable about said axis to cause orbital movement of theweb guides, means adjacent said carrier and spaced from the web guidesfor releasably holding a second web under tension and adjacent one webguide of the pair of web guides, which second web is stationary and aportion of which is provided with an adhesive coating whereby it can besecured to said moving web, and means connected to pivot said carrier tomove said web guides from positions in which the moving web and thesecond web are mutually remote to positions in which the webs arebrought into surface-to-surface contact with one another and theresultant combined web is constrained to follow a sinuous path aboutsaid pair of web guides to ensure intimate contact between the two webs,whereupon the second web is released by the tensioning means, the meansfor releasably holding the second web under tension being disposed suchthat the stationary web can be held against either web guide, thearrangement being such that pivoting of the carrier in one directionwill effect splicing of the webs when the stationary web is held againstone of the web guides and pivoting of the carrier in the other directionwill cause splicing of the webs when the stationary web is held againstthe other of the web guides.

2. Web splicing apparatus according to claim I, wherein the web guidescomprise rollers.

3. Web splicing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the means forpivoting the carrier comprises a rack and pinion device actuated by adouble-acting pneumatic ram.

1. Apparatus for splicing a moving web comprising, a pair of parallelweb guides which are spaced apart to define between them a single paththrough which the moving web can pass, a common carrier on which saidpair of web guides are mounted, said carrier having a pivot axis spacedlaterally between and parallel with said pair of web guides, saidcarrier being pivotable about said axis to cause orbital movement of theweb guides, means adjacent said carrier and spaced from the web guidesfor releasably holding a second web under tension and adjacent one webguide of the pair of web guides, which second web is stationary and aportion of which is provided with an adhesive coating whereby it can besecured to said moving web, and means connected to pivot said carrier tomove said web guides from positions in which the moving web and thesecond web are mutually remote to positions in which the webs arebrought into surfaceto-surface contact with one another and theresultant combined web is constrained to follow a sinuous path aboutsaid pair of web guides to ensure intimate contact between the two webs,whereupon the second web is released by the tensioning means, the meansfor releasably holding the second web under tension being disposed suchthat the stationary web can be held against either web guide, thearrangement being such that pivoting of the carrier in one directionwill effect splicing of the webs when the stationary web is held againstone of the web guides and pivoting of the carrier in the other directionwill cause splicing of the webs when the stationary web is held againstthe other of the web guides.
 2. Web splicing apparatus according toclaim 1, wherein the web guides comprise rollers.
 3. Web splicingapparatus according to claim 1, wherein the means for pivoting thecarrier comprises a rack and pinion device actuated by a double-actingpneumatic ram.